What kind of god is this?
The American evangelical god is a narcissist.
When it’s all about US Christians, actually…
The wonder of “How Great is Our God” appears to have combined with “Make America Great Again'' in the consciousness of American evangelicals. Their conception of greatness permeates their thinking and influences their votes. Greatness, to the evangelical Americans I know, seems to mean a return to the days of women having their place, of children blindly obeying their parents, of abuse not being discussed. Such unholy regression is rooted more deeply in white Americans than we would like to admit, but nowhere is it more blindly adhered to, than in the white American church. There are perhaps reasons for this. There are, however, no excuses.
I have found that evangelicals major on minors in a way that would have pushed Jesus to overturn tables and talk back to authorities. For example, evangelicals are notoriously far more upset about people outside their group swearing about abuse, than about abuse itself. Even child sexual abuse. To them, it is more important to be polite, than to deal with evil honestly. To be angry is always sin, in this way of thinking. Never mind the tables Jesus turned over, nor the imperfect followers He employed. Never mind the New Testament preeminence of love over legalism.
Way to strain out a gnat to swallow a herd of camels, but here we are.
It seems to me that the evangelical god we are seeing revealed now, isn’t the same God I worship, because these evangelicals, created in his image, don’t really care about right or wrong, as much as winning and being right. I just want to be left alone, but their extremists are trying to get to my kids, into our bedrooms, into hearts and in control of our minds. Places reserved for privacy and peace are being infiltrated and disrespected by these most controlling of people, never mind morality or ethics or respect or even love; they must have control.
Such disturbed characters smear the rest of us for our failure to live up to their ways, while unrepentantly and consistently covering up their own willful abuses.
American evangelicals showed who they are, when they supported Trump to the point of abusing, belittling and trying to silence people who care about character.
Those of us who left them on principle were accused of such things as bullying: for trying to warn them against being part of abuse, for talking honestly about the obvious moral failure of overwhelmingly electing a boastful sexual abuser, now publicly known to be a rapist, by definition.
I’ve never seen such hate from Christians, and that is despite the fact spiritual abuse was always a problem in the faith I grew up trusting.
Instead of dealing with abuse, they embraced one of the very worst abusers they possibly could. Now, a few years on, Christians fighting gun violence in places like Tennessee, are feeling the same hateful, silencing, victim-blaming cruelty that poverty-stricken migrants have always received from comfortable American Christians, just for trying to get to safety across our borders.
I have not seen white Republican Christians in this country valuing life of late; quite the contrary. They value keeping women in their place and they don’t care whose children they impact. They don’t even care about their own kids’ futures. And they are still voting alongside the same folks who are prepared to go after the children of people, whose politics or jury duties, conflict with their own amoral preferences.
I have to ask the question, give the callous indifference and willful, ignorant hate I've observed for several years now:
What if the god of 81% evangelicals just isn’t great?
It seems to me they have made up a god in their narcissistic image.
Their American jesus is necessarily brutal, masculine, white or at least draped in an American flag. He doesn’t care about children or stewardship of the earth; this god is going to burn everything down, and the only people that will be left are people just like him - or them. He is pro-gun and doesn’t care who dies; he is coming prepared for war, and everyone better get out of the way.
Evangelicals sing and get high on this jesus while the world burns; they do not make it a better place while they have a chance. They are narcissistic nihilists, not disciples.
They view women as lesser than men, children are basically nothing and must be shaped and indoctrinated, not exposed to a variety of ideas and allowed to think for themselves. And this narc jesus is mightily offended if you call him racist, because he doesn’t see color, and we shouldn’t be talking about race (or rape) in America, anyway. Men are here to protect; everyone else just has to submit to authority and they will be absolutely fine. Never mind the abuse coverups.
This is greatness, to the evangelicals who voted for Trump and would continue to do so, no matter what his crimes, or more importantly for Christians, his very obvious lack of love. They can claim otherwise, but their actions tell us more than their protestations. They might as well use all the swears; abuse with a smile is still abuse.
I believe that American evangelicals have imagined a greatness that is the opposite of what they taught those of us who grew up in evangelical churches. There is no more humility or repentance, only blood and soil. They have left their first love for power and control, for white supremacy, to be precise, and they are very offended if you point that out. Honesty is woke, and so they have redefined wokeness as a bad thing.
Their god is not good, not even great, only powerful, in the worst sense.
Their god is in control, but not love. He is strong, but not gentle. Their god is vengeful, not sacrificial. By ridding themselves of the gentleness of a mother, the kindness of a sister, by promoting a toxic masculinity as the sole attribute of God as great, they have created a god in their own image.
The American evangelical god is a narcissist.
Everything must revolve around him, and nothing matters except him. It was a hop, skip and a jump from evangelical lust for power and control, to abusing the nation by electing a cruel and evil man. Their god is fine with abuse, because their god is not love; their god is narcissism.
Their god doesn’t tell us to put away our weapons or warn against violence.
Their god doesn’t lay down its life; it sets up a gallows and sends off terroristic threats.
Their god doesn’t welcome children into a safe and warm embrace; their god covers up abuse and enables increasingly more.
Their god doesn’t lift up the broken hearted and comfort those who mourn; their god mocks the disabled and the minority and the poor. Their god wants to kill the poor people crossing over our borders. Their god blames the victim of abuse.
Their god says their rape victim is ugly.
You see, we were taught that Christians were meant to be “little Christs” and “whatever you do to others, you do to Me.”
So when we see the god of the MAGA evangelicals reflected back to earth from the hell of Trumpism, rather than humbly living out a quiet life in the way of the cross, we can now only assume that their god is a narcissist, because they are consumed with themselves and have no room for their neighbors. In some cases, they have tacitly threatened to kill their neighbors, because murder is all that civil war is.
They are driven by fear, not led by love, and it is all about them, not about US.
Narcissism is opposed to a humble servant; it is by definition antichrist, and so are they.
The question is not how should people worship the evangelicals’ “great” god now;
the question is, why would anyone?